Coach spends break rehashing loss

Major League Soccer’s busiest team over the past three months got its first extended break of the 2017 season, and each Crew SC player and coach spent his four off days differently.

Josh Williams was in Cleveland on Wednesday night for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Game 3 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

Nicolai Naess talked with family in Norway and went hiking in Hocking Hills, providing rare escapes from the soccer thoughts and analysis that consume his regular training days.

“Especially when I’m alone, I come home after practice, I sit in my apartment, I think about football, I watch football and everything,” Naess said.

“I think it’s important to think about something else. I have FaceTime, so I can call home, and that helps me to think about something else.”

Coach Gregg Berhalter, over his four days away from his team, watched the Crew’s 2- 1 loss to the Colorado Rapids four times, hoping to gather more from a final 10 minutes in which his team allowed two goals.

“I think it probably made their vacation a little bit worse, which is normal, right?” Berhalter said of the loss. “You watch it, and you’re thinking the outcome’s different based on what’s happening in the game, and you look at these chances, at these 5- v- 3 breaks that we’re not scoring, and it’s disappointing.”

The loss, Crew SC’s third in four games, dropped the club to 7- 8- 1. To Berhalter, neither the score line nor the perception of his team that followed the stunning loss was reflective of the overall performance, in which the Crew led until the 80th minute.

“There’s clear issues that we need to adjust, but to paint this as the guys didn’t work hard, and we didn’t do enough to win the game, and the guys weren’t good enough to win the game, I think is inaccurate,” Berhalter said. “We were there, we were on the doorstep, we were the better team in the game, and we didn’t finish some chances, and we let up two easy goals.”

Thursday’s workout was the Crew’s first in the lead- up to a U. S. Open Cup game Wednesday at FC Cincinnati, kicking off what Berhalter called a “mini preseason” during an extended break from MLS competition. Crew SC does not have an MLS game until June 17 at Atlanta United.

“We’re going to set out to improve ( performance) every day,” Berhalter said. “If we can improve, we’ll be fine, and if we can’t improve it, we’re going to struggle.”

Crew cuts

Finnish defender Jukka Raitala and Ghanaian defenders Harrison Afful and Jonathan Mensah will remain on international duty through Sunday. Berhalter said they will return “as soon as possible.” He said he did not know whether the three defenders will be available Wednesday. … Defender Connor Maloney, who has been on loan to United Soccer League affiliate Pittsburgh since May 19, returned to Crew SC practice Thursday.